NEW YORK – An extremely humanlike robot made a public appearance June 15 at the Global Futures 2045 International Congress, a futuristic conference focused on the technological singularity.
Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University, Japan, described some of his efforts to develop lifelike androids. But there were two Hiroshi Ishiguros onstage: the living, breathing one and a robotic lookalike. The bots human resemblance was striking, even down to its tiny movements and blinking eyes.